Tales of an Orphan
by Flamingteen
Summary: CHAPTER 4 UP (Finally)! Kaylen finds herself at Horizon after an almost deadly encounter with the man that killed her parents. An encounter she hopes no one will ever find out about....
1. Death

Tales of an Orphan  
  
Flamingteen  
  
Summery: When Kaylen looses her family in a freak accident, where will she go? What will she do with her life? And how will she cope with the major loss that causes suicides everyday? Read to find out.  
  
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The accident was on her mind. That day when she lost everything she had. Her mother, her father, and her younger brother, Michael. One second they were in her life and the other they werent.. there was just no way to forget that fateful night. That night, Kaylen Thomas became an orphan.  
  
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"Kaylen? Are you awake?" Called an unfamiliar voice. Stirring awake, Kaylen Thomas grabbed for her glasses and peered to the open door way of the white hospital. She mumbled something, incoherantly, that signaled that she was barely awake. A nurse in a white uniform marched in like she owened the place.  
  
"Um.. who are you?" Kayled asked, wincing at the pain searing through her jaw.  
  
"Oh, now. Dont do that honey... your jaw was popped out of place in the accident and we had to set it again. It would be best if you would just nod or write something down. Kaylen's eyes showed a vague expression of confusion. The nurse noticed and handed her a pad and pencil to write with.  
  
'Accident?' Kaylen wrote. The nurse grew a look of utmost sympathy after reading the question.  
  
"Yes, dear. You were in an accident. I'm not sure if I should be the one telling you this but-"  
  
"MY PARENTS?!" Kaylen screamed, forgetting the pain. There were more important things to deal with. The nurse didn't speak. She knew of nothing to say to comfort the girl. "They- They're dead arent they?"  
  
The nurse only nodded.  
  
This broke Kaylen's small heart. She was only 13.. she had never experienced a death in the family.  
  
"My brother? Not Michael.. he can't be... gone.."  
  
The nurse nodded yet again. The realization was set in Kaylen's mind now.  
  
"Where- where am I to stay? I have no other family." She whispered.  
  
"We aren't sure yet. This is up to the state now. You will probably be placed in... in a childrens home for the time being. Dont worry.. its not far away. You will still be going to the school you go to now." The nurse explained.  
  
"I.. I wanna know. How- how did they die?" She asked. The thought of death had always made her queazy or sick, but now for Kaylen it was unbearable.  
  
"Um. Do you see that bandage on your right leg?" The nurse asked. Kaylen, now noticing the white bandage, nodded.  
  
"Last night, around midnight, s-shots rang out in your house. Your father being cheif on the police force, was easliy targeted. He put alot of people in prison.. and, for that, the familys of the criminals were mad. Two men picked the lock at night and-"  
  
Kaylen's mind was racing.  
  
*FLASHBACK*  
  
"KAYLEN!!!! GET MICHAEL AND RUN!" Mrs. Thomas screamed, busting into Kaylen's room and holding her chest. Kaylen looked up at her mother.  
  
"Mom.. whats going on?" She asked, scared.  
  
"I-Im sorry, honey. Theres no time to explain. Get your brother and get out of the house. Go down to the Mark's and call the police!! Its an emergancy!" Mrs. Thomas screamed.  
  
Kaylen, now realizing the danger of the situation, jumped up, not even bothering to put on her shoes, and grabbed her brothers hand.  
  
"Michael.. wake up Michael!" Kaylen screamed.  
  
"I'm awake!" Seven year old Michael Thomas said, rubbing his eyes. "Whats going on?"  
  
BANG!  
  
Kaylen's eys filled with tears as she heard her mother shreik in pain  
  
"GO KAYLEN GO!" Her mother bellowed before silence was heard. Kaylen and Michal both were frozen in terror. They both stared at the shadow growing bigger just around the corner of the hall.  
  
"He's coming, Michael! LETS GO!" She whispered in a demanding tone. Michael grabbed for a picture framed on his desk and jumped out of his room with his terrified sister. As they went down the steps they both tripped over something laying in the floor.  
  
"DADDY!" Kaylen screamed. She looked down at the bloody body of her father. Suddenly, the man stirred and with one last ounce of strength, he grabbed his daughters arm.  
  
"Get out of the house, Kaylen. Markasin... shot-" But that was all the man could say.  
  
"Daddy!" Michael screamed, as his fathers limp arm released its grip on his sister and fell over his fathers face. They both heard a click behind them and took off running.  
  
Not ten feet behind them they heard a deffining blast from the gun. Not the last nor the only one Kaylen would hear by the end of the night. Her father was dead for sure now.. along with her mother. Her only thoughts were on saving her brother now. She turned around for a split second to see the man aiming his gun at her brother.  
  
"NO" Kaylen screamed and tryed to dodge in front of Michael. A unbearable pain ripped through her right leg. As if the bullet went right through. Kaylen fell to the ground and within seconds of her fall she heard a small thump beside her. Michael had fallen.  
  
ROWWWW ROWWWW  
  
The police sirens were clearly coming from Smith street, Kaylen could hear. She heard paniked mummbling and peered up to the man standing over her. His face was deciding her fate. Unsure of what to do, the man jumped up and ran out the door, leaving Kaylen alive.  
  
"Bye, Sissy" Was the last thing Kaylen Thomas heard of her family.. it was from her brother who had grown the strentgh to sit up at look at her. He was shot in the chest.. right at the heart.  
  
"BYE!" He whined, and fell over, dead........ 


	2. Home

Tales of and Orphan  
  
Chapter 2: Home  
  
Sorry about that rating problem with some of you. It was only right for me to raise it. The thing was: I haven't uploaded a story in a while, just added chapters to the ones I have. So, since ff.net did all those changes, I forgot to make the rating a little higher. The whole story's not going to be like that. I just needed a way for you to understand the way the character acts. Thanks for reading and reviewing, and have a Merry Christmas, Katie.  
  
*****  
  
"So my brother... well, he wasn't in that much pain? He went fast?" Kaylen asked the nurse after she came back in from getting lunch. The nurse eating chips while Kaylen got stuck with the mushy hospital food because of her jaw.  
  
"Well, from what the doctor said, he passed pretty quick." Kathy, the nurses real name, said.  
  
"Well, I guess its for the best" Kaylen replied. "My parents too" The nurse shook her head.  
  
"Your father made it for 3 hours after the shooting but he died of blood loss and they couldn't save him. There was no way to do a blood transfusion at the time."  
  
*Nurse Kathy's FLASHBACK*  
  
"You cant just let the man die! Do you not know he has a child waiting for him when she awakes!!? A child of 14 needs her father!!!" Kathy yelled into the doctors ear as he took off his gloves and slammed them down on the table.  
  
"We go through this every day! This damn procedure to ensure the safety of the peoples health! We promise to do everything humanly possible to save lives the day we become doctors and nurses! But this is the ONLY THING I CAN DO! And it didn't work.. the man is gone. There is nothing I can do to save him." The doctor explained.  
  
"Blood transfusion? You cant even manage that?" Kathy said in a now calm voice. The doctor shook his head.  
  
"His blood type is.. rare. And we have none of it. The way to get one is from a donator.. but we haven't the time!This man will die if nothings done qui-" The doctors head turned to the heart monitor. The line that was just not barely bouncing.. was bouncing no more.  
  
"I'm sorry.. he's gone. Time of death-" he looked at his watch, hesitantly. "3:43 am"  
  
* the words become a blur and End of FLASHBACK*  
  
"Did he suffer?" Kaylen asked. The nurse just rubbed her face roughly.  
  
"Lets not talk of this anymore. Its a bit upsetting" The nurse requested. Kaylen nodded but she knew the answer. Even from only knowing Kathy for and hour, she knew the woman didn't like to give out bad news.  
  
*****  
  
"So.. she has no other relatives?" Frank Aleck from the Washington Child Services unit, asked.  
  
"No. The child was alone. Neither her mother or father had any family. They were all dead." Paul Mark Kaylen's neighbor explained. "I'd take the child in.. she's very sweet. I got to know her well, but I can barely take care of myself and that wouldn't be a great life for her."  
  
"I understand, Mr. Mark. I'll let you get back to your duty's. This is stressful for you, I know. You were a great help, thanks and bye." Frank said and hung up the phone. "This is going to be a hard life for Kaylen.. but she's a strong girl from what this man has said. She'll make it"  
  
*****  
  
"I DONT WANT TO GO!! You cant make me!" Kaylen screamed as two men from the hospital took her down the elevator down to the parking lot, after signing her out.  
  
"This will be the best place for you.. with children of your age.." One man said.  
  
"A foster home will be best?!!?!?" Kaylen screamed. She wasn't going to take any of this. In one quick flash she bit the mans arm and kicked the other man in the crotch and ran off into the woods near by. She quickly made her way farther and farther until she couldn't run anymore.  
  
"I wont cry... I wont cry" Kaylen kept repeating to herself as she took her thin jacket from around her waist and put it on. The night was coming and she had no where to go. "Better then that.. foster home." Kaylen reassured herself. "That mans crazy if he believes its best for me! I WILL NOT CRY!" She screamed. A flock of birds could be heard flying away because of her little outburst. "But where will I stay?" She whispered to herself as she sunk down close to a tree.  
  
"Why do you do this to me!!" Kaylen screamed up into the air for no reason.. talking to no one. Something caught her eye.. the whole forest caught her eye as it seemed now to be very familiar. "That-" Was all she could say as she rubbed her fingers over the carving in the wood:  
  
'KT-GT'  
  
*HALUCINATION* (So as not to confuse you, this is different from a flashback because Kaylen is in the hallucination seeing things from the past. For example her younger self is there along with her now too.. ok?)  
  
"Daddy slow down!" 6 year old Kaylen Thomas giggled as she tried running to her father.  
  
"Come on my little short stop run!" George Thomas yelled back, also laughing in a hearty way. He finally stopped so his daughter could catch up and Kaylen ran and jumped into her fathers arms.  
  
"This is fun daddy!" She giggled. "And I'm not your shortstop. Mommy's new baby is. I'm going to have a new brudder!" She giggled some more.  
  
"Dad?...." 14 year old Kaylen asked. But no answer.  
  
"Yeah, and your gonna help me make him a nice little crib!" He said laughing some more. "We just need to cut down one of these small trees for wood." George Thomas liked to make things from scratch and, in his words, "by golly this is a great chance to do so!"  
  
After about 20 minutes the small but massive tree to Kaylen came crashing down her dad screaming "HEADS UPPPPP" and he grabbed her and tickled her.  
  
"DADDY!" Kaylen said with one gasp of breath "TICKLES!" George stopped and they both stood up and looked at the small tree.  
  
"It's a beauty isn't it?" He said. "Hey, I know" He said digging his pocket knife out and grabbing for the next tree over. "We'll carve our initials in here and when people come by they'll see this is our territory!" George said carving in the last letter. "There.. okay, lets go now." George said.  
  
"Daddy don't go!" The older Kaylen screamed. Still, no answer.  
  
"Okay Daddy!!" Little Kaylen giggled.  
  
They walked off into the distance.. getting farther and farther away as Kaylen tried to run after them.  
  
"DONT-" But they were gone "go.." She whispered. "Wait... what's that?" She looked up and saw her house standing there. She walked up to it and placed her hand to the door. "Real enough.." She said and opened the door, ignoring the yellow police tape.  
  
*****  
  
"I don't know where she went but I don't think that Mrs. Blankt can deal with a girl like that, Mr. Aleck!"  
  
"Well, I know this man... His names Peter Scarborow.. he runs a school in the mountains. I think he would be glad to take her in. Its a school for troubled teens, Mount Horizon....."  
  
*****  
  
Okay.. not much of a cliffhanger I don't think. I hope you were all patient with this chapter, lol. I have plans with it so work with me here.  
  
MERRY CHRISTMAS,  
  
Katie 


	3. Yellow Tape

Tales of and Orphan  
  
Chapter 3: Yellow Tape  
  
Hey, hope you had a Merry Christmas! I just felt like writing now so.... read! Lol! She'll be going to Horizon next chapter for those of you who are waiting for that :) :) just wanna build suspence. I have it all planned out now. Kristyn now dont you go telling!-- Katie  
  
*****  
  
Kaylen pushed back the yellow police tape and stepped inside the house. She peered around the corner to the stairs as if she would meet her family's murderer face to face if she was not careful.  
  
"Hello?" She called out. No answer. She wanted a chance to explore the house safely without pestering police men.  
  
Kaylen stepped onto the first step and felt a cold shiver go down her spine. As she progressed up the stairs she felt sick... as if something bad were waiting for her.  
  
"Damnit where is it!" She heard a faint whisper travel down the hall. She was now at the top of the steps now and to her fathers old bedroom.  
  
"Daddy?..." Kaylen whispered. But she knew it couldn't be him. He was dead. She slowly and carefully walked over to the door and tryed not to make a noise. She peered into the door and gasped. There was an unknown man rumaging or rather savagly searching through her fathers drawrs.  
  
"Where is it!? GOD HELP ME!" The man yelled in frustration.  
  
"GET OUT OF THERE!" Kaylen screamed. She realized, only after she had shouted, that this man could be the man who killed her family only the night before. After all.. they always return to the scene of the crime.  
  
"Who said that" The man asked, first looking out the window and slowly shutting the drawrs. Kaylen was stunned for a moment. The man pulled out a gun..  
  
*FLASHBACK*  
  
Kaylen stared down the barrel of the gun and gasped..  
  
*END OF FLASHBACK* (short I know)  
  
The same gun. She took off running and screaming at the same time.  
  
"HELP!!!" She shrieked, running as fast as she could through the woods. She looked back in time to catch of a glimpse of a gun being held out the window. She shrieked yet again as the bark was blasted off a tree right beside her. She looked back again and the man was gone. The house was out of eye sight and she collapsed onto the ground.  
  
*****  
  
Kaylen woke up, drowsy, an hour later. She sat up in the dark woods to see a ball of light traveling closer and closer. It was shaking back and forth... almost like a human hand was holding it.  
  
"She couldnt have gone far!" A man whispered to himself. Kaylen gasped. She had no doubt that it was the man from the house. The details of that encounter were fuzzy but she still remembered enough.  
  
The man stepped above her and stared at her with a sinister look on his face.  
  
"There you are..." He whispered in a evil voice. Kaylen gasped as his flashlight came down on her face, once more knocking her out.  
  
*****  
  
Kaylen woke up the next night in a strange bed.. it wasnt a hospital though.  
  
"What the he-!" Kaylen exclaimed sitting up in the bed. "Where am I?" She whispered, not really expecting anyone to answer.  
  
"Mount Horizon, School for At Risk Teens" A boy's voice echoed into the room from the hall. Kaylen jumped as a boy about a couple years older then her stepped into the room.  
  
"Who are you?" Kaylen asked. The boy's blue eyes brightened.  
  
"Well, some people like to call me Jock Boy, but I like to call myself Scott." He said, jokingly.  
  
"How did I get here?" Kaylen asked. Scotts eyebrows raised.  
  
"You mean you have no idea what happened to you?" Scott asked.  
  
"Well, no... The last thing I remember is falling down in the- the man!" Kaylen shriked causing Scott to have to cover his ears.  
  
"Woah! WOAH!" Scott yelled. "No need to yell that loud. Some people have already settled in for bed... dont wanna wake them up" Scott was still shaking his head like there was water in his ears.  
  
"Sorry" Kaylen whispered.  
  
"Hey.. thats o-" Scott started but jumped as a strange man put his hand on Scott's shoulder. "Oh.. this is Peter.. he runs the school that your at and all.. so yeah." He said and walked out of the door.  
  
"So how have you been doing, Kaylen?" Peter asked in his all around fatherly voice.  
  
"I-I.. I dont really know.. I feel okay but... can you tell me what happened?" She asked.  
  
"Uh.. well, all we know is that you ran away from the people taking you from the hospital and they later found you laying on the ground in the forest behind your house.. you-" Peter paused to take time to think over what he was going to say next. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and went on, "Your head was lying in a pool of your own blood..." Kaylen looked dumbstruck. "Do you have any idea what happened while you were out there?" Peter asked, concerned.  
  
Kaylen thought it over for a second.. 'what DID happen?' She asked herself. 'Whatever did happen cant be good...' she thought again.  
  
"Uh.. nothing really. I just must have tripped and fallen, busting my head. Nothing real big." She said, unsure of what she just said. She decided not to tell him of the whole incident at the house. After all, she had just met this guy... who knows who he could be.  
  
"Are you sure..? Nothing happened in the house to frighten you? To make you start running fast enough to where you didnt see where you were going and tripped." Peter asked.  
  
Kaylen wasnt stupid. She was a very clever girl. Not the best in acidemics but she had street smarts.. alot for a 14 year old.  
  
"It kinda creeped me out in the house... seeing where my parents died and all.. and my little brother." This brought on tears thinking of them... she took this to her advantage. "I.. I thought I saw my father" She explained, and really this was true.. to some extent. "So I ran.. It was just.. uh.. creepy." She explained.  
  
"Well.. okay" Peter said. Not the least bit suspicious. Kaylen knew how to lie.. and lie well.. and she never got caught. "You seem to be okay enough to go and meet your roomates. Like most children who have been emotionaly scarred in some way, you will be going into the Cliffhangers. The staff at this school, including myself, think that its important to be with not only your peers, but people who understand you....." Peter went on.  
  
Kaylen wasnt all that keen on listening to a man talk about "emotional scarring" so she took this time to think. Being in a new school with new people.. right after encountering her parents killer.. twice in one day was scary. And not to mention the thought of the man still being out for her blood. But what was strange was the man didnt kill her.. he had her down and out but he didnt kill her. What did he want? What was he looking for?  
  
*flashback*  
  
"Where is it!? GOD HELP ME!"  
  
*end flashback*  
  
Kaylen shook the thought out of her mind. If she was going to be able to sleep she was going to have to get all of the scary thoughts out of her head. She remembered something her father told her once when she couldnt sleep.  
  
"Its not good to go to sleep with a guilty concience" She remembered her father saying, soothingly. She was already feeling guilty about lying to a man that she hardly even knew.. and for really no reason that she knew of. But there was no way around this. If she was going to find out what this man wanted, she couldnt have the grownups in her way.....  
  
*º*Authors note: Sorrrrrry about the BIG delay on this story!! Hope you dont hate me. It gets frustrating trying to write when your not exactly in the mood... so I only write now when I can.. and when i feel I can do my best work. I felt like writing tonight so I wrote the ending to this chapter. Again, im sorry for the wait.*º*  
  
Katie/ Flamingteen 


	4. Tape Record

Summary: Kaylen Thomas isn't your ordinary girl at Horizon, School for At-Risk Teens. First, she witnesses the horrors of her parents brutal murder... then she failed to save her younger brother from the wrath of the same man. Afterwards, Kaylen is told she is going to be sent to a foster home. No young person wants to hear that just hours after being told her parents were dead... so she ran, and she ran far. She encounters several strange things on her little "walk". One being a hallucination of her younger, happier days... and the other, meeting the man who killed her whole family yet again! She runs, after getting the mans attention and ends up passing out. Waking up later, Kaylen finds the man at her side again.. this time he knocks her out with a large flashlight and doesn't kill her. Why? That's what you all get to find out. Kaylen is sent to Mount Horizon after being found later on in the darkness of the night. What waits for young Kaylen Thomas at this new school full of emotionally troubled teenagers? Read on to find out.

Sorry for the delay all! But here you have a summary so you don't have to read it over again. :-) Review please!

*****

"Hey, you over there! You cant just sit all day, you HAVE to order something." The deep voice knocked James Markasin (Not to be confused with Markasian at the school, lol) out of his thought. He looked up and growled lowly at the man. 

"If your that desperate, I'll have a coffee... black, no sugar or anything." James mumbled, still glaring at the waiter behind the counter of the local restaurant. It was seemingly the only place to eat in this small town.

"Okay, here at Rusty's you get what you ask for.. because it's the only place you can ask for anything" The man chuckled, merrily and walked back into the kitchen to get the coffee pot started. James just scowled and looked up at the television.

"Kaylen Thomas, a young girl of fourteen was attacked last night at her own home, just hours after her parents were brutally murdered." The reporter was standing behind the Thomas house where Police could be seen swarming the place. They were turning everything upside down, searching for the almost non existent clues. The reporter went on talking, "A man in his mid 30's, George Thomas had everything going for him. A wife and two young, beautiful children, Michael and Kaylen..." James watched the news report intently... with an almost frightened look on his face. He zoned out as the reporter went on and talked about the known facts about that night. 

James slid his hands down to his pockets where his gun lay hidden. 

"... no one has been suspected in this crime yet and young Kaylen, the only survivor, was sent to a school up in the mountains." The news reporter ended her segment and James smiled wickedly. 

'If anyone knows where the damn tape is, she does.' He thought to himself. 'Don't worry, John.. I wont let you down, I know your innocent' James threw down a dollar on the table and ran out the door just as the waiter came back in with his coffee. A young police officer stood up, ready to go after James when the waiter spoke. 

"Don't worry, Hank. He paid even though he didn't even drink his coffee... I'm sure he was just in a rush." Hank nodded and looked suspiciously up at the TV. He saw how James reacted to the news report and became suspicious... but he dropped the case when the waiter lay a plate of steaming hot breakfast on his table. 

*****

"Here's your schedule, Kaylen" Peter handed the girl her planned out classes and she glared at him.

Over the past few days, Kaylen had gotten in a fight with David, gotten the 'look' from Shelby because of her friendship with Scott, and screamed at Auggie for trying to help her. She wasn't doing well and it seemed she was slipping into a depression.

"Are you okay?" Peter asked. "How has your day been?" Instead of answering, Kaylen gave him a 'dont-talk-to-me' look. He shrugged it off and decided to wait to try and chip at her wall. She wasn't going to give in easily and was very emotionally unstable. She could break at any moment and Peter wanted to make sure she talked to him when she did.

"Okay... looks like I wont get anywhere with you today, Kaylen. You may go now.. your first class is English, you have your classes with the rest of the Cliffhangers.. Auggie should be waiting for you outside the door. Let him help you there, you wont be able to find the classroom on your own and Kaylen-" Peter said, Kaylen stopped and turned around. "-Let him help you this time.. don't scream at him. Auggie is a good guy... he is only trying to do what's best for you" Kaylen scoffed but nodded. 

"Fine" Was all she could manage to say and she walked through the door, slamming it behind her. Peter sighed and looked up at the television in his office. The news report was recapping what they had said in the last half hour. It came upon Kaylen's story and Peter rubbed his eyes. 

"Why did they have to state that she was up here?! God, for all we know, the guy who hurt her parents could come back and try and get her here! Idiots!" He yelled and turned the TV off. He had a Ridge Runner class to substitute. 

*****


End file.
